Dawn crept over the Pride
Lands, washing the inky black sky in a misty pink glow. Slowly, the sun’s pale
fingers stretched beneath the clouds until the distant silhouettes of thin
wispy trees became distinct in the distance. Birds began to chirrup, hailing
the morning with their ceaseless chatter, and slowly but surely, the African
Pride Lands came awake.

But there was one who had
been awake long before the others. Taka, a sturdy young male lion with the
faint beginnings of a black mane, sat alone on the edge of Pride Rock, looking
out across the land and reflecting that today, their father would chose which
son would become the future ruler. It was the Pride tradition that when a king
had two cubs, both would contend in a test of wisdom, kindness, and strength.
Taka did not know what the test would be, but was confident he was ready.

“Taka?”

Taka turned to see his
brother had awoken and was standing in the mouth of the cave where the other
lions slept. It had always been this way: Taka arose early while Mufasa slept
in. Mufasa never was a morning lion . . . Yet in more ways than one were Taka
and his brother opposites. Taka had taken after their father the King Ahadi,
and was black of mane and green of eye while Mufasa had taken after their
fairer mother Queen Uru and had a brown mane and eyes almost golden, especially
when Mufasa smiled.

“Finally, awake, are you?”
Taka sneered, though he could not help but smile. He and Mufasa had that kind
of love/hate relationship, but Taka sometimes thought he rather hated more than
loved . . .

Mufasa laughed and moved
closer. “You know I’m no morning lion, but you – you’re always awake
before the birds!”

“One would think you
didn’t want to be king,” said Taka, studying his brother with sincere
curiosity.

Taka did not understand
how Mufasa could be so laid back about something that seemed more than
important to him. In a lion’s pride, power meant everything: the best mate, the
first food, total control of the law. Taka couldn’t understand how Mufasa could
not want that kind of power! But then again, Taka had always been cleverer than
Mufasa, who was good-hearted but too trusting and almost naēve.

Mufasa tilted his head and
frowned. “Why do you want this so badly?”

Taka narrowed his eyes.
“Why don’t you?”

The two brothers remained
staring at each other, struggling as they had their entire lives to understand
each other as their parents sat watching them from the shadows of the cave.

The other lions still
slept and would not wake for several more minutes, but Ahadi and Uru sat side
by side, watching their children who were almost adults and murmuring together.

“Why are you so
frightened?” Ahadi demanded of his wife with a smile. “No matter which prince
wins the competition, they are brothers and will still love each other!”

Uru shook her head. “I am
a mother,
Ahadi. I knew these two before they came into the world: they argued in the
womb and will continue to argue all of their lives! Mufasa is not the type to
hold a grudge, but Taka is! He’s power-hungry and if he loses – I can
only imagine how he’ll hate Mufasa and it will hurt Mufasa so . . .”

Ahadi listened to his
wife’s words with a frown and the more he listened, the more he realized how
true his wife’s words were. He’d seen the hunger in Taka’s eyes himself and
knew there would be trouble whether Taka defeated Mufasa or not. It had always
been a budding idea in the back of Ahadi’s mind to split the kingdom in half,
thus allowing both sons to rule, but the more he watched Taka as the cub grew
into adolescence, the more he realized it was better if Taka did not rule at
all. Taka was unkind and selfish and conniving while Mufasa was just the
opposite. Yes, Ahadi already knew who would be the next king, but what was he
to do with Taka?

As the sun continued its
climax toward the top of the sky, the other lions in the cave began to stir.

“It is time,” muttered
Ahadi, drawing himself up. He nuzzled his wife and added, “All will turn out
fine, Uru, rest assured.”

Mufasa and Taka nuzzled
their mother in greeting, then set out after their father and the other lions
who would witness he competition.

Chapter 2: Ahadi’s Test

“I know this path,” said
Taka after he and Mufasa had been following their father with the others for a
while.

Mufasa sniffed the air,
“The waterhole.”

Ahadi chuckled, “My sons
have keen noses and sharp minds.”

“Do I have the nose or the
mind, Father?” joked Mufasa and the surrounding lionesses chuckled. He caught
Sarabi’s eye, who was moving a little at his side, and they smiled.

Taka glared at them both.
Sarabi had never really liked him. He had bullied her a lot when they were
cubs: biting her ears, tripping her, shoving her in the water hole. He and
Mufasa’s fights had mostly centered on Sarabi. Whoever won the competition
would marry Sarabi. Taka smiled to himself. It was the sweetest revenge: his
brother would sulk in the shadows, an eternal prince, while he, Taka, had cubs
with his lover! Then finally he would be the better son, he would have Uru’s attention and Ahadi’s
praise, and all would love him and despair!

As the group of lions
traveled downhill the ground became cooler, hailing the presence of water.
Birds and animals scurried, darted, and fluttered past, bidding good morning to
the king and his pride. Zebras and antelope stood still, merely bowing as the
king and his sons passed, for they knew the party was no hunting expedition but
the witnesses to that morning’s competition for sovereignty.

When the group came at
last to the waterhole, it was to discover an immensely fat elephant sitting on
top of the scant water supply, firmly ignoring the other animals as they cried
angrily for it to move. The elephant had been sitting there, blocking the water
supply for days, complained a giraffe, leaning its long neck down to address
the king, and it was refusing to share the water!

Ahadi, who’d known
perfectly well what’d been going on for days, turned to his sons, “A lion who
can move that large an animal is worthy of my place.” Without further
instruction, King Ahadi stepped aside and joined the watching lionesses with
Uru, leaving his sons facing the grumpy elephant together.

“I’ll go first,” snarled Taka before
Mufasa could open his mouth. “You’re such a brute you’d just try to pick it up
like a simpleton ant trying to uproot a tree.”

Mufasa merely smiled and
watched his brother saunter away, torn between curiosity, concern, and
amusement. He knew how stuck his brother was and that it only ever led Taka to
trouble.

“Elephant!” said Taka
loudly, approaching the enormous gray animal and gazing up at it with contempt.
“Do you know who I am?”

“I have a name!” snapped
the elephant, rolling one of his beady eyes around to peer down at him. “And no
matter who you are, you’d be wise to scoot off!”

“Who do you think you are?”
Taka snapped. “I am Taka, prince of these Pride Lands, and you will do what I
tell you to do! Now get up!”

“Oh, my,” moaned Uru,
aghast, “It’s sheer foolishness, talking to a grumpy elephant like that –
Ahadi, put a stop to this before something awful happens!”

“How will he learn?” Ahadi
hissed, though he watched Taka as anxiously as his wife.

The elephant, in much
agitation, lifted his trunk and trumpeted angrily at the sky. Taka did not heed
its warning and moved too late when the trunk came swinging down and smacked
him to the ground. Taka lashed out, but the elephant quickly defended himself
with a side-thrust from one of his long brown tucks. Taka’s snarl of agony
blended with the astonished gasps of the watching crowd and Uru’s piercing
scream as the prince flew several feet through the air and landed in a quiet
heap.

“Oh, my! Is he quite
alright?” said the elephant, his beady eyes flying wide.

The lions gathered quickly
around Taka, but it was Mufasa Taka saw when he first came to. Taka turned his
head and everyone drew back with a gasp: one of his eyes was sealed shut with
blood.

“Taka! Are you alright?”
asked Mufasa anxiously, nudging his younger brother to his paws.

Uru kept shrieking, “His
eye! My cub has lost his eye! Oh, my cub!”

“Shut up, Mother!” Taka
snapped. “I haven’t lost my eye – and that elephant’s lucky I haven’t, or
I’d be picking it from my teeth!”

Such a remark astonished
everyone and they stared at Taka as if they’d never quite given him a good look
before.

Mufasa was frowning, “We don’t
speak of eating the herds – not in front of them!”

Several zebra and antelope
lifted their chins and marched off, incensed. King Ahadi stood motionless,
staring at Taka and wondering where he’d gone wrong. How was it that he’d
managed to raise such an insensitive son?

Taka opened his injured
eye and everyone saw that, indeed, his eye was there and whole but a bloody
scar was over the lids: he’d only just closed his eye in time to have the lids
grazed. He gave Mufasa a sneering bow, then turned and stalked away across the
Pride Lands. Uru moved to stop him but Ahadi murmured for her to “let the cub
be.”

Now it was Mufasa’s turn.
Mufasa, however, seemed to have forgotten the task at hand. He stood watching
Taka disappear into the distance and only remembered the elephant when Sarabi
gave him an encouraging smile.

Remembering the
competition, Mufasa turned to the elephant and approached cautiously. The
elephant watched him with a narrowed, suspicious eye.

“You saw what I did to the
other one? Well, I’d do it again in a flash. Serve him right, not even grown
into his mane yet and ordering about the likes of me! I was tromping around
these Pride Lands before you were pouncing butterflies!”

“Cirol, but he would never ask me that, would he,
the young hairball. He didn’t even ask why I’ve been sitting here – no
one has! All anyone cares about is their water, not poor old Cirol.”

The herd animals who’d
remained or returned exchanged guilty expressions and some monkeys listening in
a nearby tree blushed.

“How can I help you,
Cirol? I’ll try my best, and if in the end I fail, you can lie here until my
mane’s quite gray,” vowed Mufasa.

The elephant laughed. “Ha!
You’re a tame beast, but there’s a wild streak in you that you keep in check
with perfect skill! The truth is . . .” and the elephant grunted and it shifted
its weight to reveal its large round foot, “I’ve something stuck in my foot
here and every time I try to stand on it, it hurts enough to make me want to
trumpet!”

Looking more closely,
Mufasa saw that a small tree branch had become lodged in the elephant’s foot.
“Ah, I see it! Would you – would you mind if I’d pulled it out for you?”

“I’d like that very much,
young lion!”

Mufasa moved forward and
gently pulled the branch out with his teeth. The animals cheered as the
elephant rose with a mighty bang that shook the Pride Lands and gingerly tested
its foot on the ground.

“Well! If that’s not a
world of pain out of my system!” said Cirol gratefully. “Listen here, young
lion, if you ever need old Cirol I’ll be around. And who knows? With my help,
maybe you’ll be a decent king after all.” With that, the elephant lumbered away
toward the horizon, leaving Mufasa chuckling after it.

“Well done!” growled
Ahadi, as Uru moved in to nuzzle her son.

The gathering around the
waterhole burst into a loud chatter of congratulations and in their joy and
triumph everyone seemed to have forgotten Taka . . . everyone, that is, except
Mufasa, who looked with a worried frown toward the gray horizon and knew his
brother was somewhere in its mist.

Chapter 3: With Zira

Taka wandered heavily
toward the gray mists swirling on the edge of the Pride Lands and passed inside
it without hesitating. He halted and gazed almost proudly across the gray
expanse of scattered bones and gargantuan skulls. The elephant graveyard was a
forbidden place, but Taka had come here often throughout his childhood and the
place almost seemed like home.

He’d never had to worry
about the hyenas. They were stupid creatures and easily outwitted. All Taka had
to do was make them a few promises and they were held just like that in his
paw. The blind drooling idiots did everything he told them, believing he would
one day be king and give them free reign in the Pride Lands. And Taka’s plan
was almost complete but for that stupid test!

“You lost!”

Taka looked around. Zira
was stretched on one of the enormous tusks of an elephant skull. Young and
slender and with a dark strip running down her back, she was a beautiful
lioness and would have been Taka’s consort once he murdered Sarabi and exiled
Mufasa.

Zira sat up quickly and
stared at Taka, her eyes wide in disbelief.

“Don’t look so shocked,”
muttered Taka as Zira rushed to him and examined his face.

“You’re hurt! What
happened – did Mufasa lay a paw on you!” and she looked so furious as she
spoke that Taka realized with a bit of private amusement that she would have
gone to any lengths to avenge him – the perfect tool.

“It’s just a scar,”
muttered Taka, moving away. “The Pride Lands are getting dark and we won’t have
to hide here together soon,” he added.

The two young lions
nuzzled each other affectionately, then traded smiles and moved side by side
back through the gray mist and across into the Pride Lands; where indeed the
inky sky had melted across the day, chasing away the sun and leaving the grasslands
alight beneath the silver moon.

Taka suddenly gave Zira a
taunting lick and they chased each other playfully through the grass, laughing
and teasing each other with empty threats. Tired but happy, the young lions
collapsed side by side in the grass and lie on their backs, still laughing and
still in love.

“I just had an idea,” said
Zira breathlessly, rolling onto her side to look at Taka. “What if we ran away
and started a pride of our own? We don’t belong here and you could be king
without question – and without those stupid hyenas’ help.”

But Zira knew Taka would
not agree before he opened his mouth. She could read him in that way and knew
him better, perhaps, than his own parents. And why shouldn’t she? All King
Ahadi and his queen cared about was their precious Mufasa! And what was so
special about him when Taka was so clever?

“No,” said Taka,
confirming Zira’s suspicions. “I refuse to be a rogue lion – do you know
what happens to rogues? They wander from territory to territory and are beat up
and chased off – that’s not going to happen to me! And how can I think to
let that happen to you?” he demanded, looking around suddenly at Zira. He
rolled over to face her. Yes, how could he let this perfect little tool in his
scheme come to any harm? And look at her, look at the earnest in her eyes! So
long as she believed they were in love, she would do anything for him . . . “We’re
in this together. I can’t let you become a rogue! Lone females are attacked,
murdered, destitute!”

“Calm down!” said Zira,
rolling her eyes, but she was smiling at his concern. If he was that worried
for her safety, how could she bring herself to tell him what needed now more
than ever to be said?

“. . . Zira,” said Taka
slowly and Zira realized as he narrowed his bright green eyes at her that he’d
already guessed. He knew her just as well as she knew him, after all. “There’s
a reason why you want to run away, isn’t there?”

They looked at each other
a long time, and Taka realized the truth without either of them having to
speak.

“Maybe we can pass it off
as Mufasa’s,” suggested Zira, seeing his look of despair.

Taka rose suddenly to his
paws and began stalking back and forth. “Don’t be absurd. Everyone knows Mufasa
is head over paws in love with Sarabi!”

“We could set him up,”
insisted Zira fiercely. “Just get him alone with me and get a few witnesses . .
.” Her wicked smile grew, for she was liking her own idea more and more. “Then
I could easily take Sarabi’s place as queen – won’t the little stuck-up
thing be crestfallen!”

Taka stopped in his
tracks, smiling at Zira. “And once you’re queen it will be quite easy to get
Mufasa out of the way . . .”

“See? Now you’re
thinking!” Zira got to her paws. “Let’s head back before your father’s pet bird
realizes I’m missing too. It won’t help our cause if they know we’ve been alone
together –What?”

Taka had been staring a
long time at Zira and said with a sort of helplessness, “I love you, Zira,
that’s what.” And then avoiding her eyes, he moved past her and they made their
way back to Pride Rock.

Chapter 4: Bird Tales

As the days passed, Zira’s
stomach sagged rounder and rounder and the other lionesses began to notice her
condition. No one knew what to think and Queen Uru was suspicious if not
downright convinced that Zira’s pregnancy had everything to do with Taka. She
set Zuzu on Taka’s tail, charging the king’s trusty hornbill companion to watch
him everywhere he went. The hornbill complied with great readiness, for she
also believed that Taka was behind Zira’s condition. The younger prince had
been uncharacteristically quiet after losing the competition when everyone had
been certain he’d cause nothing but trouble.

“Even when he’s quietly
sulking around there’s some mischief!” said the king in exasperation to his
wife and to Zuzu. He shook his head. “I knew from the moment he was born he
would cause nothing but trouble – do you remember Rafiki struggling to
hold up two
princes?”

Ahadi, Uru, and Zuzu were
gathered under a tree out by a nearby herd. The king and queen had been
lounging in the shade on their stomachs when Zuzu had suddenly landed before
them with her report on Taka.

“Don’t remind me,” said
Uru with dull eyes. “The thing was a fiasco what with both of them struggling
to be the only one he held . . .”

“And that Zira,” began Ahadi darkly.

“Now wait a minute,
Ahadi!” interjected Uru sharply. “I don’t like Zira anymore than you do –
she’d a sly creature and can’t be trusted – but she could easily have
been . . . well . . . taken advantage of.”

“Taken advantage of!”
boomed the king in disbelief. “By who? By Taka? She adores Taka!”

It only took a moment for
the three of them to gather the same idea at once.

“You don’t think . . .”
began Zuzu incredulously.

“No!” boomed Ahadi,
stamping his paw in the dust. “Never Mufasa! He would never do that to a
lioness and he loves Sarabi!”

But young lions had a way
of being young lions.

“I could set Zazu on
Zira,” Zuzu suggested. “My son is young but he’s devoted to Mufasa and would be
eager to help.”

Yet as the hornbills kept
an eye on both Taka and Zira, no evidence emerged that either had the slightest
connection, whether romantic or otherwise. The most suspicious thing Taka did
was wander frequently alone, and even that seemed innocent as all he did was
such boring things as scavenge bits of kill from jackals and other smaller
predators or sleep the day through on a rock.

Zira, meanwhile, in her
growing condition, never left Pride Rock except to get a drink at the
waterhole. Afterwards she wandered right back and went to sleep. The other
lionesses and even Uru tried to divulge with innocent questions the father of
the unborn cub, but Zira was too quick and too witty to fall for “idle” talk
and kept her secrets to herself.

At last, one night, Zira
made her move. Zazu had been sleeping on his post but awoke suddenly to find
Zira had gone. He fluttered out of the cave in a fluster, but was relieved to
see Zira down at the waterhole, bending for a drink. Zazu sighed his relief and
would have gone back to sleep, but the nearby grass rustled and another lion
emerged. Zazu had fully expected to see Taka’s black head, but a brown mane
emerged instead and Zazu was shocked to hear Mufasa’s deep voice. Zira moved in
and nuzzled him affectionately.

Zazu flew away at once,
too shocked and too angry to witness anymore. Here he was, following after
Mufasa foolishly, believing him to be a great prince and a perfect future king,
a lion of moral standing, a lion with a kind and good heart – and there
he was double-crossing not only Sarabi but all of them with Zira!

“I don’t believe it!”
roared Ahadi the next day when Zazu miserably imparted his findings.

“Tell us again what you
saw,” said Zuzu, watching her son closely.

Zazu was standing with his
long head hung, twiddling the tips of his feathers together like nervous
fingers. It pained him more than any of them realized to reveal Mufasa like
this, but he said with a deep breath, “I followed Zira last night to the waterhole
and Mufasa met her there. They were talking and – and then . . . Zira
rubbed against Mufasa . . .”

“Oh my,” said Uru, and sat
down hard on her haunches. She looked quickly to her husband. “Ahadi, what are
we going to do?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” said the king, glowering,
“but wait until the cub is born.”

Chapter 5: Sarabi’s
Idea

When Zira’s cub was born
some time later, there was no celebration for the new “prince” or even, in
fact, any joy. None of the Pride Land herds came to see the new cub, for the
king and queen had tried desperately to keep it a secret. The cub was a male
with Zira’s brown eyes and the same dark stripe as its mother running down its
back. When Ahadi stormed through the crowd of lionesses to demand the cub’s
father, Zira merely smiled.

“Answer me!” Ahadi boomed.

“Why . . .” said Zira
slowly, pausing to lick her sleeping cub and roll it over in her paws, “the
father is your son . . . the future king!”

There was a collective
gasp as everyone turned to stare at Mufasa, who was hovering uncertainly in the
mouth of the cave, the dark night sky twinkling behind him.

“Well!” growled Ahadi, who
turned upon his son with a menacing snarl. “What have you got to say for
yourself?”

Mufasa had merely winced
at Zira’s confession. He knew already that no one would believe him and felt it
useless trying to protest. He saw the hurt fill Sarabi’s eyes and couldn’t bear
to look in her direction. Taka had suddenly entered the cave behind him, and as
he ran out, he saw his brother’s triumphant smile.

Mufasa ran as he’d never
run before, away from Pride Rock and the overwhelming responsibility of being
king, away from their accusing stares, away from Zira’s scheming and Taka’s
hate.

His father would give
sovereignty to Taka because of that cub and banish him, turn him into a rogue.
But Mufasa suddenly didn’t care. He didn’t want to be king, he didn’t want the
responsibility, he didn’t want to stand in his father’s place and have to deal
with the constant intrigue, the betrayal, the lies!

If he could have one wish
he’d take Sarabi and they would run away together . . . but in the end running
away seemed cowardly and he knew that come morning he would have to return and
take the punishment for his brother’s treachery.

Mufasa slowed to a heavy
walk and moved with his head hung to the top of a small rocky outcrop covered
in grass. There he flopped and gazed down into the pool gathered beneath at his
reflection.

“Is it true?” demanded a
trembling, fierce voice.

Mufasa knew without
turning that Sarabi had followed him. He heaved a miserable sigh and said
heavily, “No, Sarabi, it is not.”

“Thank the stars!”
breathed Sarabi, flopping at his side.

The young lions lied side
by side, staring down at their reflections together. Though Sarabi believed
Mufasa, it did not change either of their miserable expressions. They both knew
that unless they had proof otherwise, no one would believe that Mufasa was not
the father of Zira’s cub.

“How did they do it?”
Sarabi whispered.

“It was a setup. Taka
wanted to meet me one night at the waterhole and I agreed – I assumed he wanted to talk about the coronation!”
Mufasa added in his defense when Sarabi suddenly lifted her head. “But when I
got there it wasn’t Taka I meet . . .”

“And someone saw you and
blabbed,” finished Sarabi. “How could you let Taka trick you like that!”

“You know I don’t want to
be king!” said Mufasa fiercely. “I thought maybe if we talked it over, we could
go to Dad and he would choose Taka instead. . . .”

“Mufasa,” said Sarabi, and
Mufasa looked around to see she was smiling and shaking her head, “you are too
young to realize how much the Pride Lands need you! You’re a good prince and
you’ll make a good king – we just have to prove it again to your father.”
She playfully blew a lock of Mufasa budding mane out of his eyes and they
smiled at each other.

“Somehow, no matter what
Taka and Zira did, I knew you’d keep believing in me, Sarabi.”

Sarabi frowned. “I didn’t
want to believe it for a moment, not even when you looked so shocked standing
there with everyone turned against you. That’s why I followed you.”

They rubbed their ears
together and sat in silence a moment, listening to the insects chirrup and
relishing in the cool breeze as it swept down to run its fingers through their
fur and rustle the grass.

Sarabi looked quickly at
Mufasa as a sudden idea came to her. “Mufasa, that’s it!”

“What’s it?” said a
startled Mufasa.

“You know how Taka is
always sneaking off alone? He leaves almost every night. Be at Pride Rock
tomorrow night – don’t let anyone see you. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Chapter 6: A Monkey’s
Uncle

Taka waited as usual until
the last lioness had fallen asleep before he crept from Pride Rock. He had
barely made it from the cave, however, when a mandrill’s grinning face suddenly
dropped down in front of him. He slid to a halt, but his surprise washed into
irritation and he snapped, “Get out of my way!”

“It’s not your way, it’s the king’s way -- and you’re not the king!” said Rafiki,
dropping down to lean upon his staff.

Taka’s lip curled, “If you
don’t move, I’ll take you in one way and shoot you out the other!”

“But you’d like to be
king, wouldn’t you?” went on Rafiki as if he couldn’t hear Taka. “And you’re
certainly clever enough. I’ve always told Ahadi that you would make an excellent king.”

Taka paused, taken aback
by the flattery. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the old mandrill. “Why
are you here, Rafiki? You’re only supposed to come around when a sovereign has
been born.”

“A sovereign has been born or had you forgotten?”
Rafiki tapped his forehead with a long finger.

Taka shook his head. “I
don’t know what you were told, but Nuka hasn’t been named sovereign.”

Nuka was the name Zira
gave their cub.

“Why not?”

“For one thing he’s too
stupid. The bigger he gets the dumber he gets. Today he started walking and ran three times
into a wall. I can’t believe a cub of mine – er, I mean . . .”

Rafiki stood unfazed, his
arms folded over his walking stick.

“TAKA!” boomed a voice
from the depths of the cave.

Taka went rigid as the
other lions emerged behind him, all of which it seemed had been awake and
eavesdropping.

Taka turned to face his father.
“That’s right, we framed him!” he snarled, his legs tense as if he was
anticipating a struggle. “I got Zira pregnant and we framed Mufasa!”

Zira moved forward with
Nuka in her mouth and stood proudly beside Taka.

Just then, Mufasa stepped
out of hiding. Sarabi hurried to his side, as did Uru, Ahadi, and the
hornbills.

“Oh, Mufasa, we’re so
sorry – we thought --” cried Uru, who was instantly nuzzled by her son.

“Sire,” said Zazu with a
meek bow, “it was I who – well . . .”

Mufasa chuckled. “It’s
okay, Zazu!”

“My son,” said Ahadi, “can
you ever forgive us for doubting you?”

“There is nothing to
forgive, Dad,” said Mufasa, shaking his head and smiling. “After all, you were
tricked by the greatest of deceivers,” he added, glaring at Taka.

Ahadi went rigid with
anger, remembering his youngest son, his consort, and their son. He turned toward Zira and
growled, “Zira, for deceiving the pride in an attempt to become queen, you are
banished!”

“No!” roared Taka, glaring
at his father.

“And you!” shouted Ahadi,
ignoring his wife’s protests as he rounded on his son, “Your name is no longer
Taka but Scar and you will keep that name to remind you of your foolishness!
You are never to see Zira again – now get out of my sight!”

Taka suddenly lunged at
his father with a roar of rage, but Mufasa intervened, smacking Taka to the
ground. Zira let out a snarl of outrage and dropped her cub, but the other
lionesses pressed in. The king could not take his astonished eyes off of Taka.

“Get up!” Ahadi commanded
in a trembling voice.

Taka climbed to his feet,
looking darkly upon them all.

“Do what you will, I don’t
care,” growled his father, “but know that you are no longer welcome here while
I am king!”

Taka smiled sarcastically
at his father, “Long live the king.”

“Is that a threat!” Ahadi
boomed, starting forward, but Uru stopped him with a shocked cry of, “Ahadi!”

Taka turned to Zira, who
gathered a whimpering Nuka in her jaws. Then the two of them fled, fled the
pride, Pride Rock, and the Pride Lands.

“Why must you always
defend Zira?”
Ahadi demanded, turning to his wife.

“It was wrong to banish
her!” Uru snapped. “Having them out there struggling alone will do more harm
than good, I fear – perhaps not during your reign but somehow, in the
end.”

Mufasa, standing on the
edge of Pride Rock as he watched the lions disappear into the darkness,
couldn’t help but privately agree with his mother.

Chapter 7: This Isn’t
the End!

Taka led Zira and Nuka
deep into the Outlands, a destitute and barren place with little to no herds to
prey upon and even less water. They wandered a long way as the land continued
down, breathless and aching and terribly angry.

“How can I? How can I when
this is all your fault? If you hadn’t given us away to the monkey we wouldn’t
be in this mess
– we were this close --!”

“Shut up and let me
think!” Taka paced back and forth, his head bent low to the ground. “You’re
right – it’s not over. I’ve got to go back to the Pride Lands and get rid
of Mufasa – after Dad dies. Mufasa is softhearted and will welcome me
back but my father is not . . .”

“What about me?” said
Zira.

Nuka sat watching them,
his eyes darting back and forth. They were talking just as if he weren’t there
at all!

Taka stepped close to Zira
and looked her deep in the eyes. “Zira, do you love me?”

“Of course I do!”

“Would you do anything for
me?”

“Anything! Like you said,
we’re in this together!”

“I need you to perform a
very dangerous act: I need you to mate with a rogue --”

“Taka!” gasped Zira,
taking a step back.

“I know! Rogues are
dangerous and you could be killed – but we need an heir that isn’t
– Nuka – and you’re such an attractive creature, what lion would
kill you anyway?”

When Zira said nothing,
Taka continued: “Find a rogue, mate with him, and the cub you have will be my
heir.”

Chapter 8: That’s Why
We’re Outlanders!!!

“. . . and that’s the last
time I saw Scar,” finished Zira heavily. She was lying on her stomach within
the cave while Nuka (now an adult with an irregular black mane) and Zira’s
young cub Vitani sat near, listening in awe. “King Ahadi died very soon after I
was banished and Scar returned and was accepted by his brother, just as he’d
predicted. He succeeded in killing Mufasa,” she said proudly, “but Mufasa’s
hairball son, Simba,
escaped!” she added with sudden wrath.

Nuka, who’d heard the
story many times before, stamped his paws in the dust and sneered.

“And it was Simba who caused Scar’s downfall –
and that,
children, is why we’re Outlanders!” Her bright eyes snapped on Vitani and she
leaned close to her daughter and added darkly, “And that, Vitani, is why I am never ever to hear of you playing with the
prince again!”

“I don’t know what made you think it was okay --!”
went on Zira, climbing to her paws, but her lecture ended as a dark figure
loomed nearer. A dark smile spread across Zira’s face and she said with
delight, “Ni!”

“Ni?” Nuka sprang,
trembling, behind a nearby rock.

Vitani giggled.

A hulking male lion
stepped out of the gloom. His eyes were black and glittering and his mane was a
dark brown with black streaks. He ruffled Vitani’s fuzzy head affectionately,
then went to Zira and rubbed against her.

“Ni,” said Zira joyously.
“You’ve been away a long time – come, let’s talk in private . . .”

“Yes,” agreed Ni, who
growled suddenly at Nuka, “and watch her this time!”

Nuka ducked behind his
rock again and shook so hard his teeth chattered.

Zira and Ni left the cave,
wandering out over the Outlands side by side.

“What is it you wanted to
talk about?” said Ni when Nuka and Vitani were out of earshot.

Zira halted and smiled widely
at Ni. “Another cub!”

“You’re --?” began Ni in
surprise.

“Yes!”

“Let’s hope this one is
male. We can train him to take down Simba . . .”

“I still don’t see why you can’t do it!”

“I’m getting too old for
this!” Ni snapped. “If it were up to me I would never have let you drag me into
this in the first place! I’ve given you two cubs now for your harebrained plan
– be satisfied!”

After a long stony
silence, Zira said menacingly, “There’s one more thing I must ask of you
– if
you’re up to it, old boy.”

Ni’s face darkened, but he
asked roughly, “What is it?”

Chapter 9: Sunspot

Nala had not slept well
the night before and that morning she’d only slept perhaps half an hour when
she awoke suddenly again to check frantically for her son.

She and Simba had led such
a routine all night and both had been relieved every time they awoke to find
Kopa curled and sleeping peacefully between them. After a fight with Simba, the
rebellious cub had wandered off on his own. Nala had followed him to find he’d
been playing with Zira’s cub – a tiny replica of Zira who didn’t know how
to play Tag but could dig for termites better than Timon and Pumbaa combined.

Simba snapped awake at
once and his head jerked around to find that indeed, the space where Kopa had
slept all night was empty. He leapt at once to his paws and ran to the edge of
Pride Rock. Kopa sometimes liked to sit there, watching the sun rise over the
Pride Lands, but their little “Sunspot” (as everyone affectionately called him)
was no where to be seen.

“Oh, Simba, you don’t
think he did it again?” cried Nala anxiously as she came to Simba’s side. “I
don’t think I can do this with two cubs.”

Simba looked at Nala
quickly. “Did – did you say . . .?”

Nala smiled. “I did. Kopa
is going to have a little brother or sister, and hopefully, this one won’t be half as rebellious.”

Simba didn’t have a chance
to answer. Zazu fluttered up and asked what was going on. Simba informed him
that Kopa had gone missing again and told him to wake the others. With that, he
nuzzled Nala and charged down from Pride Rock, his heart pumping fearfully that
this time he would not find Kopa alive.

“Another cub,” said Timon,
who’d been standing with Pumbaa in the mouth of the cave behind Nala when she’d
told Simba the news. “Good! Maybe we can get a bell for this one!”

Nala laughed as Timon and
Pumbaa came to her side.

“Oh, boy, another prince
to play with! What will you call this one?” asked Pumbaa eagerly.

Nala smiled dreamily,
“Kiara. Kiara is a nice name.”

Timon snorted with
laughter and elbowed Pumbaa. “But it’s not a prince’s name. Sounds like the queen is
crackin’,” he said out of the corner of his mouth.

Nala heard him but only
smiled after Timon and Pumbaa as they followed Simba with the other lionesses
down from Pride Rock to the Outlands where Nala feared Kopa might not come out
as lucky as last time.

Last time it had seemed so
innocent at first: Kopa had been growing increasingly lonely without another
cub to play with. Simba and Nala had tried several times to produce a second
cub against the Pride’s better judgment (for fear history would repeat itself
with yet another “Mufasa/Scar” incident) but to no avail: most the cubs died
before they were even born.

Nala recalled a sorrowful
scene where Simba had to explain that the last deceased cub (who they’d named
Ahadi) had gone to the stars to join the great kings of the past and their
other Pride ancestors.

Kopa had been heartbroken:
he couldn’t understand why his little brothers and little sisters kept leaving
him for the stars! Didn’t they want to play with him? Simba tried to explain
the delicate matter as best he could, but Kopa’s misery grew into anger and
finally one day, he wondered off alone only to come across, to his delight,
another cub in the Pride Lands!

The new wandering cub had
introduced herself as Vitani, and she and Kopa began an innocent wrestling
match in which Vitani won several times to Kopa’s severe irritation. Kopa was
just rewarding Vitani’s last victory with a bite on the ear when it happened:
the moment Nala would never forget.

As Nala crouched in
amusement, spying upon her son and his new friend in the tall grass, she
noticed a pair of furious eyes watching the cubs directly across from her. Nala
and the strange lioness leapt into the open in the same instant. Zira snatched
up Vitani and sauntered off, but not before giving Nala the usual sneering
speech about one day taking her vengeance on Simba.

Nala warned Kopa against
playing with Outlander cubs and explained to him on the walk home what an
Outlander was and how they came to be.

“But she was so nice!”
Nala remembered her bewildered son exclaiming. “I don’t understand why Dad
would want to banish someone like Vitani – then again,” he’d added as an
afterthought, “she did have termites . . .”

Nala laughed. “Kopa, I’m trying to be firm and
lecturing here, and you’re not making it easy!”

They halted beneath a tree
and Kopa climbed upon a large rock, where he hunched his shoulders and stuck
out his furry bottom lip.

“Sorry, Mom,” said the
cub, this time with sincerity. “It’s just . . . I get so lonely with no one to
play with. Timon and Pumbaa are fun but after a while, chasing dung beetles
gets boring . . .”

“Kopa, I understand that
you’re lonely – believe me, I understand. When I was a cub, your father
went away for a very long time and I had no one to play with.”

“Really? No Timon to
pretend-swallow and no Pumbaa to ride?”

“Nope.”

“No Zazu to pounce?”

“Nope. Add an army of
hyenas and a very cruel king to the mix and you’ll get one very miserable
princess.”

“Wow . . . I guess I’ve
got it pretty good, huh?”

“Well, between you and
me,” said Nala, leaning in with a confidential whisper, “I’d sometimes rather
have the hyenas back the way your dad snores!”

Kopa giggled.

Nala was brought back
suddenly to the present by Simba’s shout. She shook herself and her heart
shrank with fear: beneath the dusty hill on which they stood rolled Kopa and
Vitani beneath a tree, laughing and giggling, and totally oblivious to the
large hulking lion watching them from the shadows of a nearby cluster of
termite mounds.

Simba went at a dash down
the hill, shouting Kopa’s name, the Pride on his heels and Timon and Pumbaa
racing among them. Kopa looked up and disentangling himself from Vitani’s large
clumsy paws, he slunk away from his bounding father with his ears flat on his
head.

“Ah, man, not again,” moaned Vitani, rolling over to
scowl at the oncoming crowd of Pride Landers. But her scowl turned to a pure
look of horror as she gazed past Kopa.

“What is it?” begged Kopa
but his voice was drowned out by the piercing scream that flew from Vitani’s
mouth.

An immense black shadow
soared suddenly through the air and the next five seconds were confusion and
chaos as Simba leapt into the air roaring, as Vitani’s scream intensified, and
as Kopa gave a last agonized whimper.

After those five horrible
seconds there was a momentary silence as Simba landed too late before the
murderer of his son. A large old lion with black streaks in his brown mane and
piercing eyes stood with a limp and lifeless Kopa in his menacing jaws. The
lions of Simba’s Pride stood in complete shock and agony and up on the hill,
Nala had frozen completely, her eyes fixed on the lion who’d just crushed her
precious Sunspot to death in its jowls.

“Ni,” Nala whispered, her
voice trembling.

The rogue lion dropped
Kopa from his mouth in surprise and stared at Nala in return. “Nala?” he said heavily and Nala saw
instantly that the rogue lion would never have laid a paw on Kopa if he knew
the cub was hers.

But Simba, torn with grief
and rage, did not hesitate. With a roar that trembled across the Pride Lands
and Outlands alike, he took old Ni down with one fell swipe. The old lion died
instantly.

“No!”

Simba looked around with a
menacing light in his eye to see Zira charging across the Outlands. She stopped
over Ni’s body and stood very still a moment, her head bowed. The Pride lions
waited tensely for her to attack Simba, but Zira didn’t move, nor did she
acknowledge her trembling and sobbing cub when Vitani moved to hide between her
legs. But after a long moment of silence, Zira lifted fierce eyes to Simba and
whispered with an icy, ironic smile, “Fair enough. Kopa is dead and so is Ni,
but this is only the beginning . . .” With that, she snatched a sobbing Vitani
into her jaws and charged away again.

Nala, who could not take
her eyes off the bodies of her son and the rogue lion, felt her legs give out
and slipped into darkness.

Chapter 10: Nala’s Dare

Simba and Nala were the
joy of Mufasa’s Pride. Everyone looked upon the cubs as fine future rulers for
the Pride Lands and their feelings of pride only swelled as they watched the
cubs grow and play day by day.

One day, however, the two
cubs were threatened when a rogue lion wandered onto the Pride Lands. Mufasa
returned after a long and weary struggle with the strange lion, and Simba and
Nala heard him telling Sarabi of the grisly fight and later the long talk which
he had with the stranger.

“Imagine my horror,
Sarabi, when I discovered the lion meant us no harm,” the cubs heard Mufasa
telling his wife from where they eavesdropped from the cave.

Mufasa and Sarabi were
sitting side by side on the edge of Pride Rock, speaking together in the usual
soft undertones of happy lovers as the cubs listened unseen from the edge of
the cave.

“What business had he then
in the Pride Lands?” Sarabi asked.

“He was a king in his own
right. His pride had been torn apart by a draught far south and he was
wandering, searching for water. He happened upon our waterhole and, naturally,
the herd animals panicked at the appearance of a strange lion. Zazu came for me
and I went down to fight the stranger and send him fleeing as I’ve often done
in the past to protect our Pride. I was therefore surprised when, instead of
attacking me in return, the lion only lifted a paw to protect himself. I felt
like a monster and I stopped my attacks to ask why they weren’t returned.”

“What did he say?”

“He had no wish to fight
me, for he realized I was merely protecting my Pride and did not want to deprive
it, therefore, of its king. But he also added with a smile that he had no wish
to die for the very same reason.

“‘You are a king then?’ I
asked him in surprise and once he confirmed that not only was he a king but he
had a little son named Tojo, we continued to speak of our children and fell
into a sort of friendship. I later allowed him to bring what was left of his
family to drink and rest here in the safety of our lands until they move on,
which will be tomorrow.”

“How good and kind of
you,” said Sarabi with admiring eyes. “That poor old lion – what was his
name?”

But before Nala could hear
anymore, Simba gave a gasp of delight and backed away. Nala followed.

“What is it?” she asked
him crossly. “I didn’t get to hear what the lion’s name was!”

“Never mind! We can find
out on our own!”

Nala snorted. “Ha! They’d
never let you out of their sight. Mufasa would tie your tails together after what happened
with that ostrich.”

“We’ll see about that!
Tomorrow morning I’ll go down to see the rogue lion.”

“And if you chicken out, I
get your zebra ribs for a week. Deal?”

“Deal!”

But when Nala snuck down
to the waterhole the next morning, the rogue lion wasn’t anywhere insight.
Instead, there was a single cub dangling from a tree in the middle of the pool
and beneath lurked a crocodile, its jaws open and waiting. The croc circled the
skinny tree with its mouth open wide, thrashing against it with his tail so
that the cub dangling helplessly from its branches slipped and almost dropped.

“Help! Somebody!” the
little trembling cub wailed.

Nala stood frozen as she
wondered what to do. There wasn’t time to run back to Pride Rock – before
she even managed to wake anyone the cub would be eaten. She looked around and
seeing there was no one else to help, she moved toward the water.

“Don’t worry – I’ll
save you!” she called to the cub.

Nala waded nervously into
the water, her frightened green eyes trained on the dangling cub.

“No – don’t! Look
out!”

Nala screamed. The croc
wheeled her way, its mouth open wide. Its rows of jagged teeth were bearing
down on her when its mouth was suddenly forced shut, and standing crouched on
its nose was the cub.

Nala obeyed and was
relieved when the cub followed after her to the shore, where they both fled
coughing and sputtering with the croc lurching up from the water after them.

“What are we gonna do!”
Nala shouted as she and the cub ran breathlessly through the grass.

The croc was just behind
them, wheezing and grunting as it left the grass trampled flat in its wake.

“A tree – climb a
tree!” the little dark cub shouted.

They scurried toward a
tree and scrambled up. The croc rose on its hind legs and had almost snapped up
Nala’s tail, but a large dark paw suddenly smashed its crown and it sank away,
cross-eyed.

“Dad!” wailed the dark
cub.

Nala watched in amazement
as the dark cub scrambled down from the tree and toward a large hulking lion
with a brown mane covered in black streaks.

“Tojo! Thank the stars!”
the strange lion cried.

Father and son nuzzled
each other and exchanged a happy and relieved dialog. Their joy and relief
seemed so personal that Nala tried to slip away, feeling quite forgotten.
Before she’d crept off into the tall grass, however, she heard the cub shout to
his father:

“And I was saved, Dad!
This girl came along and distracted the crocodile so that I could get away! It
was really brave!”

“Is that so?”

Nala paused and turned
back, for the question had been directed at her. She stifled a gasp as the
large lion’s piercing eyes studied her: his eyes seemed quite terrifying at
first and his face stern. But when Nala answered nervously that, yes, she’d
tried to save Tojo, the dark lion’s face spread into a grateful smile.

“Then I am ever in your
debt, little lioness, until the end of my days. What is your name?”

“I’m Nala.”

“Ah! You are from Pride
Rock. I have heard much about you from your king. You are a princess. Princess
Nala, meet Prince Tojo.”

“Hello,” said the dark cub
with a friendly smile. His ears went straight up as he looked upon her in
delight, breathless and bright-eyed.

“And I am King Ni,” added
the dark lion with a such a kind look in his eyes that Nala felt all her
nervousness melt away and she spent a happy day with Ni and Tojo before the two
were to depart with their own pride.

“It seems there’s more to
Nala than we ever imagined,” Mufasa said later that day after Ni came with Nala
to Pride Rock to say his farewells and to relate that day’s events.

Mufasa, Simba, and Nala
were sitting on the edge of Pride Rock, watching King Ni and his pride until
they were dark dots in the distance.

Simba, who had gotten
along fine with Tojo but who, Nala noticed, was slightly jealous of Tojo’s
friendship with Nala, looked at his friend and said with a smile, “Eh, she’s alright.”

Mufasa laughed as Nala
shoved Simba down and the two engaged in a short wrestling match before Mufasa
announced that it was time for bed. The king then turned toward the cave with
Simba following after and groaning, to Mufasa’s amusement, for five more
minutes of play.

Bargaining for a later bed
time was something Nala usually took a part in, to the amusement of all the
older lions, but tonight, Nala sat alone on the edge of Pride Rock, watching
her friends continue their journey in search of a home.

Squinting toward the
horizon, she thought she saw Ni’s silhouette as the king paused atop a rock to
look back. His great head gave a friendly nod and it seemed his piercing eyes
were turned directly upon Nala’s tiny figure. Nala returned the gesture with a
happy leap of the heart and knew as she followed Simba and Mufasa to bed, that
she would never forget her new friend, King Ni.

Chapter 11: We Have a
King!

Once within their cave,
Zira placed an exhausted, traumatized Vitani to sleep that night with the
promise that one day soon all would be well.

“What do you mean,
Mother?” asked Nuka eagerly, his tongue hanging out and his eyes wide with
anticipation. He was hoping that Zira had finally realized he was great enough
to take down Simba. Of course, she’d never seen him as good enough to do
anything before except cub-sit Vitani, but now with that wretched old Ni gone,
maybe the old lion’s murder had opened her eyes.

Zira licked Vitani to
subside her trembling and said as she turned away, “Despite Ni’s death, there
will be a new king, a king that will rise from the Outlanders and take down
Simba!”

Nuka leapt up and down on
the spot, giggling insanely. “Oh, Mother, I knew one day you’d see! I’m strong,
I’m smart, and I’m the right age for star’s sake! I can be a leader --”

“Shut up!” Zira hissed,
whirling on Nuka and silencing him with a snarl.

Nuka shrank backward into
the cup-like stone pillar on which Vitani had been placed.

Vitani watched her mother
closely; fearful of what the old lioness would say next. Vitani was very young
but she was also clever: she knew her mother had sent Ni (her very own father!)
to murder her only friend in the world. And now not only her best friend was
gone, but her father, who’d she’d loved dearly, had been killed by Simba! Her
mixed feelings tugged her both ways: she wanted to hate her parents for having
Kopa killed, but she also hated Simba for killing her father. She didn’t know
how to act on her feelings or how she could ever escape her mother, even if she
tried.

Zira, as if sensing her daughter’s
rage and confusion, turned to Vitani and said in as soothing a tone as her
harsh voice could muster, “I did all for the best. Vitani, you are an Outlander
and Kopa was a Pride Lander – had Simba found you before Ni, we would be
morning you and
not your father. Simba acted just the way I expected, as did you. I told you
not to see Kopa again and, knowing you would not obey me, I sent Ni to protect
you from Simba.”

“So it’s my fault,” Vitani
whispered, tears filling her eyes. “If I hadn’t gone to see Kopa, he and Ni
would be alive . . .”

“No, Vitani,” said Zira,
leaning closer to her cub, “it is no one’s fault but Simba’s: Simba made us Outlanders! If we weren’t
Outlanders, you could’ve seen Kopa anytime that you wished. If we weren’t
Outlanders, we’d have plenty food, clean water --”

“No termites!” added Nuka,
gnawing at his butt.

“So – so how do we
stop being Outlanders?” asked Vitani meekly.

“Like I said, a new heir
will rise among us.”

Nuka stuck out his chest.
“You won’t be sorry, Mother! I’ll take out Simba and his queen too – to
tell the truth, I’ve always wondered how Nala’s head tasted --”

“Silence!” Zira growled,
rolling her eyes as she lifted and dropped her tail in exasperation.

Nuka shrank into himself,
his ears dropping and his shoulders hunching.

“If Scar wanted you to be
king of the Pride Lands you’d have succeeded the throne by now! No, Scar and I
had a different plan . . .” Zira sauntered with satisfaction up the rocky ledge
that overlooked the cavern and addressed her fellow lionesses with bright,
hungry eyes. “No, the heir will be the cub growing in my womb! Fellow
Outlanders, Ni has given me another cub!”

The Outlander lionesses
roared their approval.

“It’s probably another girl,” Nuka muttered under his breath
to which Zira slid down from the smooth ledge and gripped his cheeks hard in
her claws.

“It’s a boy, your brother!
I can sense it, just as I sensed you would be male as well!”

Zira let Nuka go (who
rubbed his cheek with a sour expression) and addressed the other lionesses
again: “Outlanders, we have a king!”

Chapter 12: Kiara is a
Nice Name

Nala sat alone on the edge
of Pride Rock, recalling as the sun went down that it was a favorite pastime of
Kopa’s. They’d held Kopa’s funeral just before sundown and buried the poor
little prince at his favorite spot: beneath a tree where he’d often liked to
play. They covered his tiny body with rocks. And Simba! Poor Simba had hardly
been able to speak but he gave the eulogy with all the emotion and with all the
agony Nala herself felt. And though Nala knew that Kopa was now with his
brothers and sisters among the stars, she still felt the cub sitting at her
side.

“Mom, where does the sun
come from?” Kopa had asked once.

“A great king named Mohatu
ruled this kingdom once when there was no sun. During his reign,” Nala answered
aloud to herself, “the animals complained of no light. The only light came from
the fireflies, which lit their way to the waterhole and showed the predators
enough light that they could hunt. But with so little light, the plants grew
poorly and the world was a cold and terrifying place. So Mohatu made a decision
--”

“’When I die,’ said he, ‘I
will ask the Great Spirit to make me a star – the brightest star there
ever was! – and I will bring light to my Pride and to all the world.’ And
that was just
what King Mohatu did.”

Nala looked around to find
Simba at her side. Both of them knew the story and he’d finished it, having
heard her saying it out loud as he approached.

“I was telling Kopa a
story,” said Nala, tears in her blue eyes. “Do you think he heard us?”

Simba stared for a long
time across the Pride Lands and as he swallowed thickly, Nala realized there
were tears in his own eyes. He bowed his head a moment and then, to Nala’s
surprise, he smiled at the setting sun and its orange and watery hues: a tiny
star had appeared just above the sun, surrounded by a patch of inky darkness,
and it was a star which they’d never noticed before.

“He more than heard us,”
Simba said at last, “he has his own star now and only the great Mohatu precedes
him in lighting the night.”

Nala smiled but after a
moment, noticed a terrible expression in Simba’s eyes and said anxiously, “Even
with this small comfort, there is something more that troubles you.”

“That lion, Ni -- you
recognized him before I did, but he was the lion we made friends with so long
ago.” He looked at Nala miserably and said, “Nala, I’m sorry I killed your
friend!”

Nala bowed her head and
closed her eyes, “But there is more.”

“Yes,” answered Simba
heavily, “you see, I think Zira’s been mating with Ni. Ni was Vitani’s father!
If only you’d seen the look on her face when I killed him! And he’s been with
Zira all this time! His pride must’ve died off – they must’ve never found
a home.”

“You’re saying Zira could
be pregnant,” said Nala, her head still bowed.

“Exactly! What if the
cub’s a boy? I can only imagine what she’ll do, how she’ll brainwash it . . . I
don’t know what to do.”

Nala lifted her head and
squinted solemnly at the horizon. “There’s nothing we can do, except wait until the cub is
born.”

“To think,” said Simba,
shaking his head, “even after Scar’s dead, all this is still going on. If I don’t do something,
this will never end!”

“Oh my Simba, one king can
not solve a dynasty’s worth of problems! The legacy of Scar goes back to before
either of us was even born! Maybe what Scar left behind isn’t for you to deal
with. . . .”

Simba remembered suddenly
that Nala was with cub. Perhaps Nala was right . . . perhaps the next
generation would be greater than the one before. . . if given the chance.